Red Hook, a mixed-use neighborhood combining light-to-heavy density residential uses with light-to-heavy manufacturing zones, is a peninsula that is surrounded by the Gowanus Bay, Erie Basin and the Buttermilk Channel. Red Hook was the original Dutch name given to the area as it was a descriptive nautical reference point for sailors navigating Brooklyn's coastline. European settlements can be traced back to the 1600's, when the Dutch began charting the eastern seaboard. Historically, Red Hook has been known as a bustling waterfront community and to this day retains much of its working class values. The overwhelming majority of residents live in the Red Hook Houses (East and West clusters).
While the construction of the Gowanus Expressway in the late 1940's and the opening of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in 1950 served to geographically sever Red Hook from the rest of the district, today these arteries have made Red Hook the ideal location for companies that depend on their proximity to NYC clients, fast turn-around times, and that depend on water-born transportation such as barging and shipping.
Red Hook's central location and abundance of M-zoned land have been pivotal in Red Hook's recent industrial resurgence. Since 1991, Red Hook has experienced over a 60increase in the number of businesses, almost all of which is in the light industrial sectors such as added-value and high technology manufacturing, food industries, warehousing and distribution and transportation. Today, nearly 5,000 men and women work at Red Hook's manufacturing and industrial businesses.
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